“Now, according to your word, Sovereign Lord, permit your servant to depart in peace.

So when those who had been sent returned to the house, they found the slave well.

He won’t thank the slave because he did what he was told, will he?

A centurion there had a slave who was highly regarded, but who was sick and at the point of death.

Blessed is that slave whom his master finds at work when he returns.

Then the slave said, ‘Sir, what you instructed has been done, and there is still room.’

So he sent another slave. They beat this one too, treated him outrageously, and sent him away empty-handed.

When the centurion heard about Jesus, he sent some Jewish elders to him, asking him to come and heal his slave.

That servant who knew his master’s will but did not get ready or do what his master asked will receive a severe beating.

At the time for the banquet he sent his slave to tell those who had been invited, ‘Come, because everything is now ready.’

So the master said to his slave, ‘Go out to the highways and country roads and urge people to come in, so that my house will be filled.

“Would any one of you say to your slave who comes in from the field after plowing or shepherding sheep, ‘Come at once and sit down for a meal’?

So you too, when you have done everything you were commanded to do, should say, ‘We are slaves undeserving of special praise; we have only done what was our duty.’”

And he summoned ten of his slaves, gave them ten minas, and said to them, ‘Do business with these until I come back.’

And the king said to him, ‘Well done, good slave! Because you have been faithful in a very small matter, you will have authority over ten cities.’

When harvest time came, he sent a slave to the tenants so that they would give him his portion of the crop. However, the tenants beat his slave and sent him away empty-handed.

Then one of them struck the high priest’s slave, cutting off his right ear.

So the slave came back and reported this to his master. Then the master of the household was furious and said to his slave, ‘Go out quickly to the streets and alleys of the city, and bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind, and the lame.’

For I too am a man set under authority, with soldiers under me. I say to this one, ‘Go,’ and he goes, and to another, ‘Come,’ and he comes, and to my slave, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.”

Blessed are those slaves whom their master finds alert when he returns! I tell you the truth, he will dress himself to serve, have them take their place at the table, and will come and wait on them!